Portable knock-down gun rack



June 25, 1957 M. J. RASBACH PORTABLE KNOCK-DOWN GUN RACK Filed April 25,1955 m. 4 n M m r A ijnite Patented June .25, 1.957

PORTABLE KNOCK-DOWN GUN RACK Melvin J. Rasbach, Wichita, Kans-Application April 25, 1955, Serial No. 503,709

5 Claims. (Cl. 224-1;

This invention relates to rifle and other types of shoulder firearmracks and refers more particularly to a portable, knock-down, gun rackreadily adaptable for both car seat and wall mounting and to which extragun mounting units may be added for the substantially horizontalmounting of one or a plurality of shoulder firearms.

Mounting racks for shoulder firearms are, of course, well known.However, these conventional gun racks commonly lack a number of featureswhich would make for greatly increased convenience and usefulness. Thus,there is presently available no single gun rack unit adaptablesimultaneously both towa'll mountings for winter storage of guns and toautomobiles for transport thereof. Such conventional racks are also notreadily reversible in position on such walls or car seats. Additionally,such conventional gun racks are not readily transposable from the wallstorage position to the car transport position without modification.Furthermore, such conventional racks are not readily adapted to theaddition of extra gun mounting units to the basic rack structure withoutweakening the existing structure or addingto the presently availablewall or seat basic support. Additionally, any car gun racks nowavailable ate not readilyadap-table to any and all types of car seats.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a unitarygun holding unit simultaneously readily adaptable for both wall storageand car transport of shoulder firearms.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a knock-down gunrack which is readily reversible in position either in wall storageposition or mounted on a car seat.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a gun mountingunit readily transposable from wall storage of firearms to automotivetransport without removal of guns therefrom or readjustment of gunstherein.

Still another object of the presen t invention is to provide aknock-down portable gun rack and rack base combination to which extragun mount storage units may be readily added without weakening the racksupporting structure or adding to the fundamental rack base structure.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a portableknock-down automobile firearm rack and rack base as'scmbly readilyadaptable to mounting on any and all types of car seats without furthermodification.

Another object of the present invention to provide a knock-down gun rackand rack base assembly adaptable .for automobile transport of guns whichwill hold said knock-down gun rack and rack base assemblies for wall orcar mounting which will maintain the barrel .of the gun .in a positionsubstantially parallel to the floor of the room or car, protect thesurface of the gun .while mounted in the rack, permit easy and safemounting and removal of the firearms from the rack, can be easily andconveniently made to fit any shoulder firearm or be readily adaptedthereto, and which is cheap to manufacture, durable, strong and stable,and has a long operational life under heavy use.

Other objects and features will appear in the course of the followingdescription of the invention:

In the drawings, which form a part of the specification and are to beread in conjunction therewith, like numerals are employed to designatelike parts in the various views.

Fig. l is a perspective view of the car seat form of the inventive gunback and rack base assembly as mounted on the back of the front seat ofa car with shoulder firearms shown in dotted lines.

Fig. 2 is a view taken along the lines 2-2 of Fig. 1 in the direction ofthe arrows with parts omitted between the broken lines of Fig. 2 and asecondary position of a part shown in full lines shown in dotted lines.

Fig. 3 is a view taken along the lines 3-3 of Fig. 2 in the direction ofthe arrows.

Fig. 4 is a view taken along the lines 44 of Fig. 1 in the direction ofthe arrowswith a secondary position of a part shown in full lines shownin dotted lines.

Fig. 5 is a side view with parts in section of the wall mount form ofthe inventive gun rack and rack base assembly. 1

In the drawings, Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 illustrate the car rack and rackbase assemblyv as removably mounted on the back of an automobile seat.Fig. 5 shows a wall rack and rack base assembly removably mounted on awall. The car rack assembly modification will be described first, itbeing understood that the basic invention includes both the car and wallmountings.

Referring to the figures, car. rack base 10 is preferably formed from asingle metallic strip of resilient strong metal such as steel. Base 10hasupper seat grip 11 which is contoured to fit over and grasp thetopofan automobile seat 12. Buffer 13, of felt, rubber or other suitablematerial serves to protect the car seat and is cemented or otherwisesuitablyattached to upper seat grip 11. It should be noted that two carrack bases 10 are employed in the automobile rack mounting and that thestructure of each bracket base It) is identical with the other. Thenumeral 14 designates a plurality of raised head rivets which arepositioned at regular intervals along the length of car rack base 10 andare rigidly fixed thereto. The number and spacing of said rivets are notcritical but, preferably, at least two raised head rivets are, employedper gun mount unit. Car rack base 10 runs essentially perpendicularly tothe car fioo'r down from the top of the car seat 12. Angle piece ofspacer 15 is formed in rack base 10 near its lower extremity to braceagainst the backof the car seat to insure vertical positioning. Springhook receiving holes 16 are formed in the lower arm of anglep'iece 15,Buffor 17, of protective felt or rubber, is fixedly attached to the faceof angle piece 15 which abuts the back of the carseat. Angle piece 15 isformed in the interval between two regularly spacediivets 14 so' as notto disturb the symmetrical positioning thereof. Rack base It) ends abovecontact with the automobile floor. Car seat lower gripping hook 18(shown in Fig. 2) serves to anchor the lower end 'of rack base 10 to thebottom of the car seat.

Hook 18 is constructed so as to be applicable to both split back (shown)and solid back car seats. Thus, gripping book 18 has end hook 18a,center cup 185, spring gripping holes 1 86 in center-cup 187; and springgripping hole at the end of the hook, 18d. Tension spring 19 connectsangle piece 15 and gripping hook 18. Spring 19 is of any requiredtension su'fiicient' to extension arm and the loop portion. 45 formsouter convex portion 46 of the barrel receiving rack, and greaterstability of the entire receiving perforations 21 formed therein atregular intervals to receive rivets 14. Extension arms 22 .are of equallength and have bolt holes 23 formed therein to enable a plurality ofthe stock receiving brackets to be fixedly connected or coupled togetheras a unit. The :outer arms are formed to produce a gun stock receivingloop. Upper outer arm 24 forms inner concave (relative base arm 20)portion 25 of the loop and has terminal extension 26 below loop portion25. Clip slip lfitting piece 27 is positioned on upper arm 24 above loopportion 25. The outer concave face of loop portion 25 is felted orpadded as shown at 28. Rivet holes 29 are formed in terminal portion 26below loop portion 25. Lower outer arm 30 is formed to produce the outerconvex portion of stock receiving loop 31 and has extension termination32 above loop portion 31 for engagement by slip fit 27. Rivet holes 33are formed in arm 30 below convex portion 31 to receive rivets 34 whichfixedly join the two outer arms 24 and 30. Lower arm 30, when free ofslip fit 27, is resilient outwardly to readily receive the stock of afirearm as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2. The inner face of loopportion 31 on lower arm 30 is felted as at 35 to protect a gun stock. Itshould be noted that the structure of the lower and upper arms 24 and 30could be interchanged to produce an essentially equivalent stockreceiving loop.

The barrel receiving bracket is formed from a metallic strip similar incharacter to that forming the stock receiving bracket and is best seenin Fig. 4 and to the right in Fig. 1. Base arm 36 has regularly spacedkey hole rivet receivers 37 formed therein. Extension arms 38 have boltholes 39 formed therein whereby a plurality of barrel receiving bracketsmay be fixedly joined together to form a unit, if desired. The outerarms of the barrel receiving bracket are formed to produce a barrelreceiving loop. Upper outer arm 40 has inner concave portion 41 of thebarrel receiving loop formed therein and terminal extension 42. Shockabsorbing material 43 is fixedly attached to concave portion 41. Slipfitting piece 44 is positioned upon upper outer arm 40 between the Lowerouter arm loop and has terminal extension 47 thereabove to receive slipfit piece 44. Shock absorbing felt or rubber 48 is fastened to convexportion 46. As is seen in Fig. 4 in dotted lines, upper outer arm 40 ismovable inwardly to more readily permit insertion of the barrel of afirearm. As is the case in the stock receiving bracket, the structure ofthe outer arms could be interchanged while producing an equivalentbarrel loop receiver. It is evident that the barrel receiving loop maybe constructed to receive any portion of the entire barrel assembly.

In comparing the stock receiving bracket and the barrel receivingbracket, it should be noted that the stock receiving portion ispositioned higher on the bracket than the barrel receiving portion. Thisis due to the general structure of shoulder firearms which elevates thebarrel above the top of the stock as clearly seen in Fig. 1. Theadjustment of the loops relative one another permits mounting offirearms with same, their barrels parallel the ground. Construction ofthe stock and barrel receiving brackets so that the barrel is carriedparallel to"the ground provides better weight balance, a more attractiverack when the guns are in position.

It should also be noted that the stock receiving bracket and the barrelreceivingbracket may be constructed with iceiving bracket has base'arm20 with keyhole rivet the gun receiving loops in any desired size,depending upon the type of gun, or capable of adjustment, and,additionally, in the present instance, should a different type ofshoulder firearm be desired to be carried in any individual rack,wadding may be added to insure a tight fit.

A form of stock and barrel receiving bracket is also contemplatedwherein the bracket comprises merely a closed metallic strip rectanglewith spring clips of the appropriate size mounted thereupon in properspatial juxtaposition.

Spacers 49 and 50 are employed to form a complete, rigid bracketstructure and join the barrel and stock receiving brackets. If only asingle gun mount unit is desired, the spacers will be attached at thetop and bottom of a single pair of brackets. If, however, a plurality ofstock receiving and a plurality of barrel receiving brackets are eachbolted together to form a single unit, the spacers are applied to thetop and bottom extension arms of the top and bottom brackets in eachunit. Spacers 49 and 50 are attached to the brackets by any conventionalconnectors such as bolts 51 and nuts 52. The length of the spacers is,of course, determined by the available barrel area of the gun and theexigencies of comfort for the passengers in an automobile. In wallmounting of the stock and barrel receiving brackets the length of thespacers may well be determined by the available wall joists if a singlewall and car unit is not employed. By grasping the top spacer andpulling upwardly and then outwardly the entire bracket unit, togetherwith the rifles, may be detached from the car rack base for convenientcarrying and handling. Similarly, in reverse operation, the bracketassembly may be mounted upon the car rack base 10.

Fig. 5 shows a barrel receiving bracket in position on a wall mount. Thewall rack base 53 is preferably formed of a metallic strip and has aplurality of raised head rivets 54 fixedly attached at regular intervalsthereto. Holes 55 for screws or other wall fastening means are alsoprovided, spaced from the rivets. The wall rack base may be constructedas the car seat rack base with a plurality of sets of rivets to receivea plurality of key hole slots if a multiple gun mount is desired.However, a pair of wall rack bases with a single set of rivets apieceshown in Fig. 5, if adequately attached to a wall, will support aplurality of such bracket units fixedly attached together.

From the foregoing it will be seen that this invention is one welladapted to attain all of the ends and objects hereinabove set forthtogether with other advantages and which are obvious and which areinherent to the structure.

I It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are ofutility and may be employed without reference to other features andsubcombinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of theclaims.

As many possible embodiments may be made of the invention withoutdeparting from the scope thereof, it is to be understood that all matterherein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawing is to beinterpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A portable knock-down gun rack comprising a gun barrel receivingbracket having a gun barrel receiving loop, a gun stock receivingbracket having a gun stock receiving loop, each bracket comprising amaterial strip formed to substantially rectangular shape in side view,the front sides of said rectangles having inner and outer overlappingfree arms, the inner overlapping arms of said front sides formed concaverelative the back sides iduced on the stock receiving bracket and abarrel receiving loop is produced on the barrel receiving bracket,

means positioned on at least one of the overlapping arms of each of saidbrackets between the formed and continuous portions thereof engageableand disengageable with the terminal portions of the other overlappingarms whereby to open and close the loops, and means cooperating with theback sides of each of said brackets for separately mounting said twobrackets on a surface relative one another.

2. A portable knockadown gun rack as in claim 1 wherein the engaging anddisengaging means for the free arms of the brackets comprisecircumferential slipfit clips.

3. A portable knock-down gun rack as in claim 1 wherein the front andback sides of the rectangles are of greater length than the intermediatesides therebetween.

4. A portable knock down gun rack as in claim 1 References Cited in thefile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,580,705 Wittmann Apr. 13,1926 2,483,043 Golden Sept. 27, 1949 2,535,564 Campbell Dec. 26, 19502,552,293 Page et a1. May 8, 1951 2,632,619 Wilson Mar. 24, 1953

